Education & Community
Professional Education
- PhD, Rice University, Physics (1967)
- MA, Rice University, Physics (1965)
- MS, U. Illinois (Urbana), Physics (1962)
- BS, Texas A&M, Physics (1960)
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Scientific Focus
Research Interests
We are focused on understanding the nature of bacterial genetic regulation. We use a variety of tools: gene expression microarrays, advanced techniques of fluorescence and electron microscopy, and a broad range of computational tools for bioinformatics and modeling.
The marine bacterium, Caulobacter crescentus, is our primary model organism. The graduate students in the McAdams group include Electrical Engineering, Physics, and Physical Chemistry students who are interested in biologically focused research. We work closely with geneticists and biochemists who are graduate students and postdoctoral fellows in Lucy Shapiro's group to bring a multi-disciplinary approach to the analysis of bacterial regulation and control.
Our interests range far beyond "conventional" approaches to genetic regulation to include the effects of dynamic spatial and temporal positioning of regulatory proteins and the regulatory effects working through the dynamic three-dimensional organization of the chromosome in the dividing cell. We are exploring how regulatory molecules are dynamically localized to particular cell positions and how this localization is integrated into the control mechanisms of the cell.
Publications
- Caulobacter requires a dedicated mechanism to initiate chromosome segregation. "Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A" 2008 ; 40 15435-40
- Architecture and inherent robustness of a bacterial cell-cycle control system. "Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A" 2008 ; 32 11340-5
- Small non-coding RNAs in Caulobacter crescentus. "Mol Microbiol" 2008 ; 3 600-14
- A DNA methylation ratchet governs progression through a bacterial cell cycle. "Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A" 2007 ; 43 17111-6
- High-throughput identification of transcription start sites, conserved promoter motifs and predicted regulons. "Nat Biotechnol" 2007 ; 5 584-92
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